Poverty and social exclusion in Wales analysed

The report shows that 640,000 people in Wales are living in poverty including 120,000 older people and 350,000 adults.

Other findings on poverty and social exlusion in Wales include:

Numbers of homeless households have doubled from 8,000 in 2000 to 16,000 in 2004.

Low pay is an increasingly significant cause of poverty. More than a third of poor households include an adult who is working.

A third of older people live alone. Numbers of older people receiving local authority home care has almost havled over the past decade.

7.5 per cent of children get no GCSE passes, worse than in any England region.

Meanwhile the Child Poverty Action Group has published Forty Voices Against Child Poverty, to mark its 40th anniversary. Children’s minister Beverley Hughes, England’s children’s commissioner Al Aynsley-Green and others have contributed to the publication.